


The Beginning

by wotcherharry (trollins714)



Series: The Chronicles of E.R. Lupin [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Post-War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-28
Updated: 2017-01-28
Packaged: 2018-09-20 12:38:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9491291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trollins714/pseuds/wotcherharry
Summary: Harry is dealing with PTSD and depression, and no one has successfully pulled him out of it, but what happens when Andromeda brings little Teddy Lupin to the castle?





	

A/N: I've been out of the fanfiction game for a while, but I've recently been fascinated with Teddy Lupin as well as Post-Hogwarts Harry, so I'm thinking that this will be a series of stories about Teddy with some Harry thrown in there. :) Hope you enjoy!  
p.s. This is also my first story on AO3 every, so please bear with me while I figure out the formatting as well as tags and such. Thanks!

 

The war was over.

  
Voldemort was dead.

  
There were so many people gone, children orphaned, parents who were no longer parents. People had fallen everywhere. Harry looked around at the mess, the disaster of a castle. He sighed. Better start somewhere, he thought as he waved his wand. Enormous pieces of the walls began to float up, landing in their proper spots, slowly rebuilding the place Harry had called home for the past six years. People were running behind him, whispering, as they went to the Great Hall. Those who had passed away had been moved to their final resting places, their funerals had, and mourned. Harry hadn’t spoken a word since Remus and Tonks’ funeral. He didn’t know what to say or how to say what he was thinking.

  
The funeral was a week ago, and he had spent all of his time since repairing Hogwarts. He couldn’t move on knowing that it was still in shambles, because as much help as there had been, it still wasn’t complete. His thoughts were racing a million miles a minute, none staying around for long. He thought about all the students who died, all those who even risked their lives. Harry shook his head. It shouldn’t have ended that way. Another sigh and the immediate portion of the wall was rebuilt.

  
Students were still milling about. McGonagall had allowed anyone who wanted to stay over summer to stay. Many were catching up on school work they missed the last year, helping each other study for the exams that they missed. The professors who volunteered were staying for the summer, helping where they could, whether it be with school work or fixing the castle or merely being an ear for the students to mumble their problems to. Other students stayed in Hogwarts because they didn’t have anywhere else to go. They were slowly rebuilding their lives, figuring out what was going to happen next, and Harry felt a pang in his stomach every time he thought about these particular students. Things were rough, but the wizarding world was pulling it together, leaning on each other, relieved that Voldemort’s reign of terror was finally over. Harry, on the other hand, may not have been pulling it together quite as well as his friends.

  
“Harry! Lunch is being served in the Great Hall! Harry?” Harry hadn’t noticed the tears coming from his eyes, although he should have expected it. He was crying an awful lot lately. Ginny stopped as she looked at his face, a frown forming. “Harry, why don’t you go lie down. You look exhausted.” Ginny took his hand softly and lead him upstairs to the Gryffindor room. He shook his head, although Ginny didn’t see it. He gently pulled back on her hand so that she was looking at him and shook his head again. Sleep was also something he was avoiding, except when he was absolutely exhausted. There were only so many times he could see Remus, Tonks, Fred, and countless others, laying on the ground, bodies cold and eyes unstaring. But Harry also couldn’t tell anyone this, as his voice had decided, without any input from him, that it was time to take a break. He turned around, away from Ginny, away from the Gryffindor common room, and continued his movements through the castle, finding any walls or doors that had fallen apart and putting them back together, banishing marks from the ceilings, blood from the floors. It was slow work, but it was all he could do. Nobody bothered him, probably because of Ginny threatening them with her Bat-Bogey Hex, and even though Harry wasn’t aware of this threat, he was thankful for the peace.

**Three Weeks Later**

It was his birthday. Eighteen and alone again. Harry thought back to his eleventh birthday, when he was told that he was a wizard, and couldn’t help but think that maybe if he hadn’t known he was a wizard, he wouldn’t have had to deal with so much heartbreak. At least he would have never known what it was like to be loved by someone, and as such wouldn’t crave it with every fibre of his being.

  
The castle had been fixed, finally, mostly thanks to Harry’s efforts. Once people realised what Harry was doing, the majority of them left him alone to do the work. It was how he was coping, and as so many of his fellow students had their own coping mechanisms, they recognised that he needed to do this, and so they focused on other things. Harry, oblivious to everyone else, didn’t even notice the lack of help, continuing to do what he thought he had to. When he awoke on his eighteenth birthday, after passing out from absolute sheer exhaustion and sleeping for almost an entire day, he went out in search of more to fix, only to find that it was all done. He closed his eyes and leaned against the cold stone wall, trying to think of something else that needed to be done. Finally, he thought of the grounds, and was about to set off when he looked down the hall and saw an older woman holding a baby with grey peppered hair, matching the woman who was holding him. The woman stopped mid stride when she spotted him, a smile breaking out on her face, quickly followed by a look of disappointment. Harry jumped in surprise as it had been some time since someone acknowledged his presence. She motioned for him to come to her, and he dutifully made his way over to her.

  
“Harry Potter,” the woman said as she pulled him into an embrace, careful not to squish the child in her arms. “You must have been awfully busy in order to not visit your godson.” Harry looked down sheepishly. He had been a pretty awful godfather, nevermind a pretty awful social human being in general. The baby made a noise and Harry looked down, only now realising how much he had avoided everyone. Stretching out his arms, Harry gently took the tiny baby from Andromeda’s, smiling down at his face. Looking back up at Andromeda, to make sure he was holding Teddy properly, he spotted a few tears, and he quickly turned his attention back to the child. Teddy’s eyelids fluttered open before closing once more, and Harry rocked ever so much, slowly and carefully getting Teddy to fall asleep once more. Andromeda sniffed quietly before taking Harry’s elbow and leading him into the Great Hall. Enthralled by little Teddy Lupin, Harry failed to notice the level of noise, and how it grew quieter as he walked in. He was too caught up in the little noises Teddy was making as he slept, how he curled his tiny fingers around one of Harry’s own, and the movements in Teddy’s face, his nose scrunching up slightly, and his mouth turning up into a smile. Edward Remus Lupin was the smallest thing that Harry had ever held, and suddenly, the world felt much smaller as well, only encompassing Harry and the baby he was holding. Unnoticed by Harry, Andromeda was beaming as she led him to what was usually the Gryffindor table, but now held members of all the houses, intermixed and chatting away. She sat Harry down in an empty area and motioned Ron and Hermione to join them. Even as the noise around Harry began to grow once more, he was preoccupied by simply watching Teddy, who continued to smile in his sleep.

  
Ron and Hermione hurried over, excited to see Harry doing something other than wandering the halls and patching things up. He still looked tired and lost, but his eyes didn’t look so empty, and his mouth was turned up into the slightest of smiles. They sat down, across from Harry, Teddy, and Andromeda, and traded “how do you do”s. After the obligatory greetings, there was silence from the small group, not because there wasn’t anything to talk about, in fact, there was plenty that needed to be said, but moreso because Andromeda, Ron and Hermione were fascinated with the light flickering in Harry’s eyes as he looked down at his godson.


End file.
